Roll Call Tribute

Jerry Nemec 

February 3, 1924 - January 18, 2023 

Jerry Nemec, 98, of Huntsville, Texas passed away peacefully on January 18, 2023. He was born in the Lilac Community in Milam County, Texas. He grew up helping his family with work on the farm. The family farm was the center of the community. They had orchards and raised different types of fruits and berries. On the farm they had a blacksmith's shop and a butcher shop, where they ran a beef club with members from the community. They also had a syrup mill where people would come from all over and bring their cane to make syrup.

Jerry graduated from Sharp High School and enrolled at Durham Business School in Austin. While attending school, he worked at the Del-Valley Airport at night writing tickets for the truck loads of material as they arrived. After finishing business school, he returned to Lilac and was going to find a job close to home. Shortly after returning he received a notice, that at age 18, he would be called up for the draft. So, he volunteered and signed up for the Air Force. He was stationed in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, where he was part of the Fifth Air Force, Army Air Corp. When the direction of the war changed, he was sent to the Philippines to Clark Air Field to check on space for campsites, then returned to Papua New Guinea. In July 1945, they thought they were going to construct a campsite in the Philippines but ended up in Tokyo, Japan. Jerry made sketches for the layout of the camp to house soldiers returning home at the end of the war.

December 9, 1945 he was back on U.S. soil. After arriving home, he enrolled at Texas A&M University to study engineering. He was the first to enroll on the G.I. bill at Texas A&M and received a degree in Civil Engineering.

He moved around Central and East Texas working on bridged and other road construction. He was offered a job in Fairfield, where he met Martha Jane Laird. They married on October 6, 1951. The next three years, they moved from one location to the next, around North East Texas for construction jobs. In July of 1952, they had a daughter, Dyan Nemec. Jerry had an offer for a job in Fort Worth where he designed and completed the work on the Fort Worth Flood Plane while working for Russell Smith.

Around 1954, the Highway Department asked him to take a job in Huntsville, Texas to design and construct the bypass around Huntsville. They moved to Huntsville, set up the Highway Department office and started designing and constructing the bypass. People in Austin were impressed by the design. That was the first section to be built, that became part of the Highway Interstate System.

He retired from the Highway Department in 1985, after 31 years. He started his own engineering consulting business and completed numerous jobs around Walker County, including the Veterans Museum in Huntsville. He also worked for the Walker County Department of Planning and Development for many years until 2019. In his spare time, Jerry enjoyed hunting and fishing, along with gardening and cooking.

Jerry was preceded in death by his parents Val Nemec and Annie Ouda Nemec.

He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Martha Jane; brother Marvin Nemec of Houston, TX and sister Betsy Hilliard of Killeen, TX; one daughter Dyan Nemec; grandson Alan Ray Tate and granddaughter Savannah Castell, several great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

A visitation will be held on Tuesday January 24, 2023 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home in Huntsville. Services will be held on Wednesday January 25 at 10:00am at the Walker County Storm Shelter. Graveside services will be at Fairfield City Cemetery at approximately 2:00pm. Memorial condolences to the family may be made at www.shmfh.com.